Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Shakopee Dahlbergs wish you all the blessings of the Season. Merry Christmas!

Opening Presents from the California Crew

Since we are heading to Boise/Sun Valley for Christmas, we decided to do an early celebration at home and open the gifts sent to us from our family in California. Before opening gifts, Lauri and Ronnie delivered gifts to neighbors - then Ronnie took a bath, ate his dinner, and was ready to go!

Ronnie LOVES the Batman cave he received from Auntie Lizzy, Uncle Stevie, Lainey and Vinny. When he opened it, he said "I've always wanted this Bat Cave!"

Ronnie opening up his Ben 10 Alien guys from Nonnie and Pa. He played with them and made Lauri pack them for the trip.

Ronnie giving Daddy a present - it was a robot bank that talks and tells you how much money you've saved.

Ronnie with his Batman computer from Poppy and Grandma. This toy also had to be packed to go to Boise!

Nonnie and Pa bought the Ben 10 Alien Creation toy - which has Ronnie VERY excited. He can't wait to mix and match the alien parts to create new aliens when we get back from Boise.

Ronnie and Daddy with the bird house they made using the Handy Manny tool bench from Maama and Momo. Another "I've always wanted this" gift.

It's Christmastime at the Dahlbergs

Even though we are heading to Boise/Sun Valley for Christmas, we still decorated a little. Here's a peek at the basics.

Ronnie in front of the tree... 70% of the presents are for him - so he is pretty excited about Christmas.

What a cutie!

The reason for the season... our Nativity.

Kiki's Birthday

For Kiki's birthday this year, we took her to dinner at Granite City (yum)! Then, Lauri and Kiki went to see "The Blind Side" (a FABULOUS movie)!



Lauri (nice barrett), Kiki, Ronnie and Doug



Ronnie helping Kiki with her birthday cookie and ice cream.

Trip to California

In December, Lauri's baby brother, Steve, turned 40. His wonderful wife, Lizzy, planned a surprise party and flew Lauri and Steve's best friend Ryan (Trusty Ry) in to town as part of the surprise. Lauri arrived on Wednesday and hid out on Maama's boat for a few days. Lauri and Lizzy got together for some shopping and a mani pedi. That night, Nonnie and Pa came over for dinner. The next day, Lauri and her Mom went shopping. On Saturday, it was time to party. Lizzy had a group of Steve's close friends and family meet at a go-kart track near SFO to race. After that, we headed to the Peters' house where more friends and family surprised Steve. It was a fast, FUN trip!!!

Maama with her new wardrobe!

An emotional Steve was completely surprised! Way to go Lizzy!!!

To keep Steve from arriving early to the go-kart track (and thus, spoil the surprise), Lizzy had to fake being hungry and conned Steve in to stopping at a convenience store for some snacks. She doesn't even like Corn Nuts!

Steve beat everyone on the track - and won a kiss from the trophy girl - his wife Lizzy!

Maama, Steve, Lauri and Momo - the Peters family!

My little Lainey Lou. What a princess!

Vinny, Lainey and their duck.

My sweet little man, Vinny. I spent most of the weekend telling him "I Love You" - he would say "noooo" and I would respond with "YES I do! YES I do!" He laughed and smiled. What a sweetie!!!!

Auntie and Vinny

The Day After Thanksgiving

Lauri sweet-talked Nana in to going to Brainerd for early-morning shopping on Black Friday. We woke up at 3:00 am and were on the road by 3:15 am. We made it to Kohl's where we spent an hour (and saved hundreds of dollars). We then went to Target where we waited in line for an hour-and-a-half to check out. Nana was a savior! She stood in line while Lauri ran around the stores to shop. We treated ourselves to breakfast at Perkins - then hit Herbergers, Bath and Body Works and a Christmas store before heading home. We got back to the cabin at 1:00 pm and were EXHAUSTED! But, Lauri got most of her Christmas shopping done! Thank you Nana!!!

The fruits of our labor!

Two tired shoppers (Ronnie took the photo!)

Ronnie planted a pine tree in the middle of the beach - he was so proud!!!

Thanksgiving at Papa and Nana's Cabin

We had a great time spending Thanksgiving at Papa and Nana's cabin this year. Papa, Nana, Kiki, Doug, Lauri and Ronnie were there to eat, drink and give thanks!


Nana making gravy while Papa carves the turkey. It was DELICIOUS!


Kiki and Ronnie bowling


Papa, Doug, Nana, Kiki and Ronnie (who refused to let us take his picture).

Vampires....

Anyone who knows Lauri well knows that she has become obssessed with vampires as a result of her reading the "Twilight" book series (thank you Danny and Kiki!). The second "Twilight" movie ("New Moon") opened at midnight on November 19th. Lauri bought 4 tickets to the midnight show in October, and conned Kiki, Alyssa (Lauri's coworker), and Amber (a friend of Alyssa's) in to going. We started the evening at Alyssa's house with appetizers, beverages and the "Twilight" movie... then headed to the theater at 10:30 pm. We were there an hour-and-a-half early, and still could only find seats in the third row. We had a BLAST! And, the movie was great!


Lauri and Kiki




Alyssa, Amber, Lauri and Katie

Surgery Recovery Week

The week of recovery after Ronnie's surgery went well. He was pretty much back to normal in 2 1/2 days. The trick was trying to keep him inactive for 10 days! Here are some things we did during that week.

Ronnie received a lollipop boquet from the Fitzgerald's (Lauri's boss). The lollipops were shaped like dinosaurs - and Ronnie LOVED them!

Maama and Ronnie playing with the packing peanuts. The Roomba is still finding those things under the couch!


Lauri hosted a Lia Sophia jewelry party - and Doug modeled some of the products. I think he might have a future as a Lia Sophia consultant.

Maama let Ronnie check out the Christmas presents she bought him... he can't wait to open them!